Jazmine Joyner and Rosie Knight did a meticulous job of researching their story, sifting through social media posts, email correspondence, and the corporate registration papers for the show’s parent company. They also interviewed dozens of stakeholders including vendors and volunteers. What Joyner and Knight’s research suggests is that Fan Con’s founders were naive about the costs of mounting a show, offering such generous giveaways during the crowdfunding stage that it would have been impossible to honor the backer rewards. Perhaps Joyner and Knight’s most shocking discovery is that Tom Leonard, the Vice President of Marketing & Sales, “might be a bot account that brands can hire, and not actually a real person,” a revelation that casts new light on the organizers’ struggle to pull off such an ambitious convention.

For anyone who’s considered starting a convention, Joyner and Knight’s essay is a cautionary tale about what can go wrong; for the rest of us, it’s a sad reminder that the best intentions are meaningless if they hurt the very people they were intended to help.

MANGA NEWS AND LINKS

Dark Horse just announced that it will be publishing Mob Psycho 100, a supernatural comedy from the creator of One-Punch Man. Look for volume one on October 24th. [Dark Horse Comics]

In other publishing news, VIZ is reissuing Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemistin hardcover. The “Fullmetal Edition” promises an array of fan-friendly extras, including “brand-new cover art, new color inserts and color versions of select pages previously printed in black and white.” Volume one ships on May 8th. [VIZ Media]

Wondering what April showers will bring? The Yatta Tachi gang has you covered with an exhaustive list of May’s new manga and light novel releases. Among May’s highlights are Captain Harlock: Classic Edition, Leiji Matsumoto’s original space opera; Chi’s Sweet Adventures, a spin-off Chi’s Sweet Home; Devilman: The Classic Collection, Go Nagai’s first Devilman comic; and The Troublemakers, a collection of short stories by gekiga pioneer Baron Yoshimoto. [Yatta Tachi]

Uniqlo’s Rose of Versailles t-shirt collection just went on sale. [Uniqlo]

Paging NBM Publishing! The newest edition to the Louvre Collection is Taiyo Matsumoto’s Louvre no Neko, a “surreal, wandering tale of a herd of anthropomorphized stray cats,” one of whom “can hear the voice of the paintings.” Jocelyn Allen has all the trippy details, plus a few images from the series. [Brain vs. Book]

The Kyoto Manga Museum will be celebrating the 50-year legacy of Big Comic Spiritswith an exhibit on the magazine’s most famous series and contributors, from Osamu Tezuka’s Swallowing the Earth to Takao Sato’s Golgo 13. [Anime News Network]

Wondering what to read this summer? VIZ just posted a trailer for its biggest June release: Satoru Noda’s manly-man adventure Golden Kamuy. The story focuses on Saichi Sugimoto, a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War. After surviving 203 Hill — one of the war’s most protracted battles — he trades his soldier’s gun for a miner’s pickaxe, hoping to raise money for a fallen comrade’s widow. When Sugimoto discovers a map pointing to hidden Ainu gold, however, he lights out for the territory in pursuit of treasure, going deep into a hostile wilderness teeming with soldiers, psychopaths, and hungry bears. Take a peek:

Looking for something more kid-friendly? Over at Drawn & Quarterly, you’ll find a nine-page preview for Shigeru Mizuki’s Kitaro: The Great Tanuki War, also due in stores next month. This installment pits Kitaro against an army of monstrous catfish and tanuki warriors. At stake: the fate of the Earth, of course.

In other news…

Diamond just reported its Top 300 Graphic Novel Bestseller list for April 2017. Not surprisingly, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Tokyo Ghoul, and Attack on Titan are among the strongest performing manga in the direct market. [ICv2]

Vernieda Vergara looks at this year’s manga offerings at Free Comic Book Day and wonders, what gives? [Women Write About Comics]

Don’t give up on The Rose of Versailles or Sugar Sugar Rune just yet! UDON confirmed that they are “deep into the localization process” for both titles, though no publication dates have been set. [@TheOASG]

Fusako Kuramochi’s Hana ni Somu (Dyed with a Feather) just nabbed top honors from the 2017 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. Other honorees included Haruko Kumota’s Descending Stories, which was awarded the Originality Prize, and Akimoto’s Kochikame, which took home the Asahi Special Prize. [The Asahi Shimbun]

The end is near… for Fairy Tail, that is. Creator Hiro Mashima has announced that volume 63 will be the final installment of this best-selling fantasy series. [Otaku USA]

What happened when Deb Aoki, Brigid Alverson, Erica Friedman, and Heidi MacDonald shared a room together at TCAF 2017? This epic, four-part podcast about the show, the swag, and the panels. [The Beat]

In case you missed it: Allison Ziebka reflects on the depiction of sex and sexuality in the Scum’s Wish anime. [Bloom Reviews]

Anya Ullrich reviews three biographical comics: In-Between Days, which chronicles artist Teva Harrison’s battle with terminal cancer; California Dreamin’, which examines Cass Elliott’s childhood and teen years; and Imagine Only Wanting This, which documents Kristen Radtke’s efforts to come to terms with death. While it’s great to see a gifted writer reviewing graphic novels for the Times, it would be nice if the Grey Lady dedicated a little space to the pulpy stuff, too. [The New York Times]

UDON may have scored the biggest coup of SDCC 2015: at its Saturday panel, the publisher revealed that it had acquired the rights to Rose of Versailles. UDON will release Riyoko Ikeda’s ground-breaking shojo manga in a 2-in-1 omnibus format next spring.

News from Japan: The last chapter of So Cute It Hurts! will appear in the August issue of Sho-Comi; eleven volumes have been released to date. Corpse Princess creator Yoshiichi Akahito just launched a new “battle fantasy manga” in Shonen Gangen magazine.

The Japan Times has a fascinating profile of manga-ka Machiko Satonaka, whose series Tenjo no Niji chronicles the life of the Empress Jiro (645-702 AD).

Reviews: Ash Brown jumps in the WABAC machine for a look at Sanpei Shirato’s The Legend of Kamui, which VIZ originally published in English in the 1990s.